Haunting her dreams
by Torie Rilistkrytcat
Summary: A short oneshot written for Aleheather week, for the prompt "Nightmares vs Reality". Heather's buried angst and guilt torment her in her sleep.


**This is just a short, kind of weird oneshot for Aleheather week, written for the prompt 'Nightmares vs Reality'. (which was actually a prompt I submitted lol)**

**No, I don't own total drama. **

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Heather was able to keep her conscious mind calm and composed. She may have been feeling guilt for her actions, but she was able to hide it under a strong, hard shell that repelled others and kept in all sensitivity. Outwardly, she seemed callous and utterly indifferent towards recent events. Her own greedy actions had led to someone being hideously disformed and put through extreme pain, and yet she just tossed her hair with an indifferent attitude, earning looks of complete disgust from others at her nonchalance. Even some of the harder people were stunned by Heather's cold, selfish attitude; after all, while they disliked Alejandro, he had just made a heartfelt confession of love towards her, only for her to betray him in the worst way. Heather just brushed their disapproval off; she was strong, and she didn't need the admiration of any of those losers anyway.

However, her subconscious mind was a different story. She was unable to control her thoughts, and though she tried to distract herself and push any concerns o the back of her mind, all her angst and guilt was expressed in dreams- hideous, graphic nightmares that haunted her mind for days. Night after night, she would wake up screaming while hauntingly realistic visions still played on her mind. In her sleep, she felt all the agony she'd inflicted on Alejandro, but magnified. She could see his body as the lava consumed it, and no matter how many times that she tried to save him, tried to reconsider and pull him out of the way of the lava flow, somehow she never could; all she could do in her dreams was sit motionless, hearing screams that tore her apart inside. The dreams were never exactly the same, but they were all centered around the same thing. She tried to tell herself night after night that she was bigger than this, that it wasn't her fault that Alejandro had been burned by the lava, that she didn't need to feel guilty over some stupid womanizer who deserved to be betrayed after the number of times he had betrayed others. However, her hidden guilt still played up, and the dreams continued to torment her, night after night.

For months that turned into long, painful years Heather found sleep was no longer a regular occurrence in her life. She would avoid going to sleep for hours due to the fear of the inevitable dreams, and when she finally did sleep she would wake up after her nightmares, and be so shaken that she would nt be able to sleep again. Though the nightmares carried on for months, they never grew stale or less traumatic; every minute was still fresh, spinning more horrifying images into her mind. Heather's insomnia was wearing her out, making her even more crabby and brusque than usual, and yet she refused to see someone to make them end- she was far too proud for that. Instead, each night she would tell herself firmly that she was bigger than these dreams and that she could make them go away, and each night she would fail. They never went away, never even faded, and she felt like she was going to lose her mind over them...

Things changed, however. The show began again, and Heather was surprised to see Alejandro exit the robot suit, fully healed and restored to his former glory. She thought that this might help calm the dreams slightly, and yet for some reason they still did not subside; she was still woken by her own screams, with tears streaming down her face, that night while the other villain girls all groaned and called her an inconsiderate nuisance. Heather was concerned; she knew he was healed now, so why did the images of his fiery demise still plague her mind? She didn't know why- her guilt should have been somewhat dimmed, and yet she still felt just as terrible as ever. Even when a slight relationship began building with her and the Latino, Heather still managed only a few hours of sleep a night. She began to panic- what if the nightmares never went away? What could she do to make them stop?

Finally, Heather had to swallow her pride. It was a clichè, but the only way she felt like she might ever feel at peace with Alejandro after the whole volcano thing was to apologise. The whole idea of apologizing to _him_, of all people, repulsed her, and yet she needed it to stop; she was tired, both physically and mentally. She couldn't handle looking at him and hearing that agonized scream echo in her head every time she did...

The words _I'm sorry_ tumbled out of her mouth awkwardly, making her feel like a complete idiot, and yet at the same time she felt strangely relieved to be apologizing. The gesture surprised but warmed Alejandro; he couldn't believe that Heather was actually being considerate. Blushing at how uncomfortable the conversation felt, she had looked down at her feet as she muttered lowly how she'd never meant for him to get so badly injured. Alejandro had just smirked in a slightly less cocky manner than usual, before slowly telling her that he had never believed the events were her fault anyway. They had parted with the usual competitive taunts, and yet there was something lighter between them. That night, Heather was stunned when she woke up and realized that for the first time in what felt like forever, her nightmares had not been present.

The nightmares didn't go away completely. In years to come there would still be the rare, scattered nights when the darker memories floated to the surface, and Heather woke up hysterically again. However, on these occasions it was different; there was someone there to comfort her, pulling her into his arms and murmuring softly to her in Spanish that everything would be alright until she fell asleep again. After all, in nightmares Alejandro might still be scarred and disfigured, but in reality he was there beside her, and the incident in the volcano was now a thing of the past.

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***CLICHÈ ENDING ALERT!***

**Just a short thing I wrote (when, admittedly, I was half asleep) for Aleheather week. I hope it turned out OK.**


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